French ban Twitter favourite ‘hashtag’ in bid to protect language

The French have said au revoir to the Twitter favourite ‘hashtag’ (Picture: Reuters)

The French have banned the omnipotent Twitter term ‘hashtag’ from all official government documents in their latest attempt to prevent English words invading their language.

The government’s Académie Française has declared that the French word ‘mot-dièse’ must be used when there is any reference to the # symbol in published reports.

It is the latest move following years of attempts by the French to protect and promote their native language.

Schools have been told to encourage children to use the alternative French term, and the media has also been asked to dump the English version.

The Académie has pages of words that the French are trying to phase out, from the bog standard such as ’email’, ‘DJ’ and ‘chewing gum’ to technical terms, such as ‘orbit-lowering’ and ‘leveraged buy-out’.

It also includes ensuring words have all the appropriate accents, such as ‘cafeteria’ being written as ‘cafétéria’.

A government report into English two years ago warned of a ‘deep crisis’ facing the French language and the realisation that, despite having 200million French-speakers on the planet, ‘the idea of a French-speaking world is becoming obsolete’.